Ohatchee comes to life late, falls short
- Updated: September 27, 2014
Cherokee County’s Brendan Bray (4) looks to evade Ohatchee’s diving Josh Sexton. In the cover photo, quarterback Taylor Eubanks looks towards an open receiver; he threw three second-half touchdown passes for the Indians. (Photos by Greg McWilliams)
By East Alabama Sports Today
OHATCHEE – The home team’s offense came to life after a little halftime inspiration, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the hole it had dug in the first two and a half quarters.
Ohatchee quarterback Taylor Eubanks threw three touchdown passes in the second half Friday and the Indians outscored Cherokee County over the final two quarters, but they couldn’t escape their fourth straight loss, 34-21.
Eubanks, a sophomore, completed 20 of 28 passes for 246 yards and threw touchdown passes to three difference receivers – Blayde Crump, Dylan Yates and Michael Cherry. Yates caught seven passes for 103 yards, Crump six for 74 and Cherry five for 49.
The Indians (1-4) needed to attack through the air. Besides being in comeback mode, they were held to only 35 yards rushing.
“He really had a nice game in the second half; I’m proud of him for that,” Ohatchee coach Scott Martin said. “He did some good things. … They were really good up front and we couldn’t run it very well.”
Ohatchee didn’t have much success at anything in the first half and things didn’t go well to start the second, either, as the Indians were intercepted on their first play and later fumbled into the end zone that was recovered for a touchdown.
But then they got things moving. They eventually were in position to cut the deficit to six late in the game, driving to the Cherokee County 20, but turned it over on downs.
“People said I don’t know what you told them at halftime,” Martin said. “We just challenged them to play hard. We came out and offense-to-offense we outscored them 21-7 in the second half – and it wasn’t against their 2s. They had to play hard to the very end. I was proud of the effort in the second half.
“I thought our fundamentals in the first half were bad. I talked to them about fundamentals at halftime. I said don’t worry about the scoreboard, do the things you’re taught by the coaches and execute and we’ll worry about the scoreboard. And all of a sudden we’re in a ball game.”
Yates also played a big role on defense, making eight tackles. Chase Widgeon was the Indians’ leading tackler with 13 hits (nine solo). Owen had had seven and Brennan Wink and Crump had six each.
Ohatchee receiver Blayde Crump focuses on pulling in a pass. Crump caught the first of Taylor Eubanks’ three second-half touchdown passes Friday night.
Cherokee Co. (1-4) 14 7 7 6 — 34
Ohatchee (1-4) 0 0 14 7 — 21
C – Brendan Bray 39 pass from Tyren Dupree (James Sewell kick)
C – Bray 4 run (Sewell kick)
C – Dupree 1 run (Sewell kick)
C — John Tucker fumble recovery in end zone (Sewell kick)
O – Blayde Crump 8 pass from Taylor Eubanks (kick failed)
O – Dylan Yates 4 pass from Eubanks (Michael Cherry pass from Eubanks)
C – J.T. Hill 9 run (kick failed)
O – Cherry 9 pass from Eubanks (Dakota Wise kick)
Category CC Ohat
First downs 20 19
Rushing-yds 34-234 29-35
Comp-Att-Int 12-20-0 20-28-2
Passing yds 154 246
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1
Punts-avg 1-25.0 2-38.5
Penalties-yds 4-45 4-40
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